Natblack40
by um.hello.alrighty then o.o
Summary: Nat Black, daughter of convict Sirius Black who did not die in this story! , and her best friend start falling in love without noticing it. Or at least, Natalie doesn't notice....James kind of goes out of his way as you'll see.
1. Online

Nat snuggled under the plush duvet covering her cherry-wood bed and opened up the leather-bound purple notebook she used as an address book. Her heart beat fast looking at all her friends' pictures, names, and information. She read each page:

Natalie "Nat" Phyllis Black

Blue eyes, brown hair

Born June 2nd

Online username: natblack40

House: Gryffindor

James Sirius Potter

Brown eyes, black hair

Born May 13th

Online username: jspotter0513

House: Gryffindor

Rebecca "Becca" Olivia Lawrence

Brown eyes, black hair

Born August 4th

Online username: HAVE YOU NOT FORGOTTEN I DUNNO WHAT A COMPUTER IS?!?

House: Ravenclaw

Rose "Rosie" Leanne Weasley

Brown eyes, auburn hair

Born September 5th

Online username: rosieweasley704

House: Gryffindor

Scorpius "Scorp" Hyperion Malfoy

Blue-green eyes, blond hair

Born June 6th

Online username: Um, daddy doesn't know what the bloody hell a computer IS…It's lucky you taught me about the tellyphone….

House: Slytherin

Nat closed the book and replaced the coordinating lock. She stuffed the key into a special pocket in her suitcase and dragged her luggage downstairs. "Mom! Mom! Can you help me carry my luggage?" she yelled. "Why don't you get Aaron to help you with it?" her mother replied. "Aaron!" Nat screamed and ended up with a sharp "NO!" from her older brother. And so her mother helped her.

"Natalie Black, how many suitcases do you need?" Mom scolded. "Well, the purple one and the orange one are for my clothing, the pink one is for all my decorating stuff, and I have my matching paisley duffle bag for all my schoolbooks!" she replied. "But why do you have your backpack?" "I needed _something _to put my hair supplies in!" "Minimize the luggage, dear," "Fine!"

So Nat climbed up the stairs in her bright blue pumps and navy cashmere cardigan and began to repack. She thought it over very carefully. She most certainly would need her undergarments, and she couldn't live without her charm bracelet collection, and then the calf-length boots were a must….the list went on and on until finally, she managed a backpack for school books, her duffle bag for shoes, and her purple suitcase for everything else. She carried her luggage back downstairs.

"Happy now, mum?" she asked. "Yes, you've done much better. What is with this calling me 'mum' all of a sudden?" her mother replied. "It's a British thing. Everyone at school does it!" "Oh, yes, you're magic school. Very well then, you can do what you like for an hour and then we have to take off for King's Cross." "Fine _mother_," she said and climbed the stairs once again.

Natalie's family was very rich, so they had moved to London from Washington D.C. so they could be closer to her father's family, since they had already built up millions of dollars. So, her room was very posh – it was silver and blue with accents of cherry-wood. She had a plush navy duvet and sheets in a shiny gray on a bed made of cherry-wood. An alarm clock sat on a cherry-wood side table and the walls were each painted a different shade of blue. A silver floor lamp resided on the other end of her bed and her cat Scooter's bed almost directly underneath that. A signed poster of her American Idol favorite from this year, Casey James, hung on the wall, framed in cherry-wood.

The only thing better than the Blacks' English manor were the way they got to dress. Nat was always dressed impeccably in shades that complemented her skin and eyes. Today, she was dressed in her favorite traveling outfit for the long ride on the Hogwarts express – a black silk tank top with a rhinestone-encrusted hem and navy blue cashmere sweater. A jean miniskirt lengthened her legs and her bright blue pumps increased her height 2 ½ inches. Her shiny brown hair was straightened and pulled back in a braid.

A beeping sound came from the computer and a window popped up.

Rosieweasley704 and jspotter0513 have joined

Jspotter0513: so happy its almost time 4 skool 2 start again

Rosieweasley704: totes cant wait 2 c u

Jspotter0513: same here wheres nat?

Natalie seated herself on the cherry-wood stool in front of the lit screen and began to type rapidly.

Natblack40: right here u dummy

Jspotter0513: look whos talking

Rosieweasley704: nice 2 c nothings changed

Natblack40: U WANNA GO JAMES?

Jspotter0513: BRING IT PORTER!

Natblack40: UR ON POTTER BOY!

Rosieweasley704: plz plz plz don't kill e/o b4 term even starts

Jspotter0513: anything 4 u queen rosie

Natblack40: shut up potter…wat r u peeps doin?

Jspotter0513: listening 2 my s2pid uncle talk abt the damn war again

Rosieweasley704: my effin dad is such a braggr

Natblack40: poor u guys wish I was there

Rosieweasley704: ya same wish I was ur manor

Jspotter0513: sure beats listening 2 uncle ron

Natblack40: I know wat u mean

Jspotter0513: btw we got u a prez over brake

Rosieweasley704: wrong 4m o/ break james

Jspotter0513: ur such a nerd rose

Rosieweasley704: shut up

Natblack40: u guys r the best!!! Got u something 2

Rosieweasley704: I bet I kno wat james' prez is

Jspotter0513: wat??!?!

Rosieweasley704: A KISS!!

Natblack40: ew no hes like my bff

Jspotter0513: then wat did u get me?!

Natblack40: u will both have 2 wait and c

Jspotter0513: :(

Rosieweasley704: :(

"NAT! TIME TO GO!" Aaron yelled.

Natblack40: I g2g 4 the train

Rosieweasley704: same here hopefully dad wont talk abt the damn war nemore

Natblack40: ill pray 4 u!!

Jspotter0513: lol!

Rosieweasley704: lol!

Natblack40: c u soon

Rosieweasley704: buh bye

Jspotter0513: ttfn

Natblack40: bye!!

Rosieweasley704: save me a seat on the train

Jspotter0513: me 2

Natblack40: k ttfn!

"NAT, MOVE YOUR ASS AND LET'S GO!!" Aaron cried. "GOSH, I AM COMING!!" Nat yelled back. Aaron was in the year above her at Hogwarts and had her mother's dirty blond hair and her father's stormy gray eyes. He was about 3 inches taller than Natalie was, making him 5'11", since she was only 5'8".

Just as she was making her way down the stairs, her silver-cased cell phone vibrated in her back pocket. She set down Scooter's cage at the foot of the stairs and answered the call. "Hello?" she answered. "Nat!" a voice cried. It was Scorpius Malfoy, one of her other friends that hung out in their quintet. Rose had a huge crush on him, even though he was a Slytherin. "Scorp! Sorry, I can't really talk now, I'm kind of in a rush to get to the Platform," she said. "That's alright, can you save me a seat on the train?" "Sure. See you soon!" "Bye!" She hung up and received glares from both her mother and father, as well as Aaron.

"If we're in a rush, why aren't we moving?" Natalie asked. Her father gave an eye roll identical to her own and seized the car keys off the intricate wire hook that hung next to the light switch in the hall. They marched out the door and climbed into the Porsche right next to the Limo. They preferred not to attract so much attention when they went out on their own.

The luggage had already been tucked away in the trunk and Scooter was out of his cage and in the special cat car-seat her brother had helped her make for him. They harnessed him in and then put on their own seatbelts instantaneously. Her father was a maniac of a driver.

Nat's cell phone vibrated again. "Ugh, not Scorp again," she muttered. "Why does he always pester me on the very _last _day of summer?" But it wasn't Scorpius, it was the one other member of the quintet: Rebecca Lawrence.

Rebecca was rich and a half-blood, like Natalie. Rebecca's mother was a famous American actress who had transferred to London for the same reasons as the Blacks. Her father was a wizard who fought in the last Wizarding War. He had been a Ravenclaw at Hogwarts, and alas, Rebecca was put in the same house.

Nat answered the phone with a quick flick of her hand. "Hello Becca, nice to hear from you," she said blandly. On the other end, Rebecca was squawking away about her new sneakers and about how they lifted the ban on Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products, except for the Skiving Snackboxes. But since when had it ever stopped them? "Yes, Rebecca, I can't wait to see you either. I'm at the station now. G'bye," she said, hanging up.

Natalie gracefully slid out of the car and undid Scooter's harness. She hooked up his jingling green bedazzled collar to the leash she had bought for him last month and the trotted gracefully through the station. Aaron, however, was forced to push both trolleys.

Nat was sixteen and the most popular sixth-year among most people, except for a couple Slytherins who didn't approve of her because she was a Gryffindor. She had all O's on her O.W.L.s and couldn't wait to start studying at N.E.W.T. level. Natalie was also the prettiest girl and all the boys could never take their eyes off her.

Today was a sunny day in London with clear skies and a temperature of at least 80 degrees. It was a great way to begin the school year, in Natalie's opinion. Once Aaron and her got through the barrier, they parted with their parents and set off to find their friends.

After Aaron was gone, she was forced to carry her own luggage, which she found to be quite annoying seeing as she had over-packed. Or at least most people would call it over-packing; Nat considered it perfectly normal. As she was struggling with her last suitcase, a shadow appeared over her. "Do you need some help?" he asked.

She looked up to discover it was James, but boy, had he changed over the summer! His voice was somewhat deeper and he had finally grown to be at least 4 or 5 inches taller than her. Nat had to admit that he'd gotten pretty good looking. "Thanks, James," she said, relieved.

James let out an approving whistle when she stood up straight again, which resulted in a blow to the back of his head. "Can't you _ever _act somewhat mature?" she asked. "Since when do we act mature?" he replied. This made Natalie laugh. "Yeah, you're probably right. Where's Rose?" she asked him. Rose and James were cousins.

"Rosie is right over there with Scorp." James said Scorpius' nickname with the slightest tone of disgust. He still didn't really approve of allowing a Slytherin to hang out with them seeing as most of the quintet was made up of Gryffindors. "Go figure, right?" she said. "I guess…."

James nervously rubbed the back of his head. He knew about Rosie's crush on Scorpius, seeing as the two sixteen-year-olds had spent most of the summer together, but it was still an uncomfortable topic. Especially to talk about with Nat, of all people.

"Have we done all the pranks in your Purple Book of Wonder yet?" James asked, quickly changing the topic to something more lighthearted. "Not yet, but that's what this year is for, right?" "Yeah," he replied.

"I can't believe they're doing the dumb TriWizard tournament again!" Rosie stormed over to them yelling. Scorpius followed closely behind like a little puppy. "Where'd you hear that?!" James exclaimed. "Ben Ryder just told me! My dad told me Uncle Harry was in it and someone died! I can't believe they'd do that again after that!" "Rose. Chill. Ben Ryder is the biggest liar here," Nat told her. "Oh, well I'd never talked to him before, so I didn't really know that," she defended. "Honestly, Rosie, you can be so gullible!" James said and he glanced right at Natalie and winked.

Nat nearly died that minute. She wanted to faint. She wanted to scream. She wanted to die, but she didn't. Instead, she memorized that James winked with his left eye and then moved on with her day. She didn't even notice that a tiny part of her was crazy about him.

James thought exactly the same thing when Nat tossed her hair and began an avid conversation with Scorp about keeping his future girlfriend out of trouble like that. Naturally, this made Rosie blush. Scorpius somehow kept his cool even though Natalie was making fun of him. But James actually did notice. James Sirius Potter was in love with his best friend. "Come on guys," Nat said. "Let's go find a compartment."


	2. The Purple Book of Wonder

And so Natalie and the gang set off to find a compartment near the back of the train. They were still missing Rebecca, but figured they could go along without her. After all, half the time she was already there waiting for them. So it was again.

They were strolling the isles when they came across a familiar brunette face in a compartment towards the front part of the Hogwarts Express. It was the other member of their quintet, Becca Lawrence.

Rebecca was wearing sneakers that looked like they had been dipped in a vat of jewels, which they probably had been seeing as Becca was, well, Becca. Her legs were covered by skinny black jeans and a slashed-through t-shirt layered over a shocking pink tank-top was thrown over her torso. Her shoulders peeked through at the top to reveal a tattoo she had gotten over the summer of a hippogriff.

Scorpius rapped sharply on the glass. Since Rebecca was wearing her headphones and obviously listening to her iPod, which she had smuggled in every year since they had started at Hogwarts, she probably wouldn't hear him anyway. Scorp often missed slight details like this.

But surprisingly, Rebecca did notice and she turned away from her head bobbing and mini dance moves to smile at them. Without taking off the headphones, she gracefully got up to let them in. She waved.

"Why can't you just _talk _to us?" Rosie questioned. Rebecca motioned towards her headphones with her index fingers. After everyone had seated themselves, James got up and started to mock her, dancing randomly and idiotically. Everyone walking down the isles turned to stare with wide eyes. The quintet, other than Rebecca who still couldn't hear, began to laugh.

So then, Nat got up and decided to be even bolder as to tap Becca's amazingly hot temper. Natalie gracefully rose from her seat and walked over to where Rebecca was sitting. She bent down and yanked the headphones out of her ears.

"Hey! What'd you do that for?!" Rebecca screamed. "I decided it was time for some…er…_quality time _with your friends," Nat replied. She could hear the boys snickering and Rose attempting to hold back her giggles. Natalie walked back to her seat next to James and sat down.

"What were you listening to anyways?" Rosie asked intently, leaning forward in her seat and resting her chin in her hand whilst her elbow was balanced upon her thigh. "Oh, nothing, it was just the American Idol podcast. I get it streamed to my iPod touch," she replied looking smugly at Natalie. Nat squirmed in her seat just thinking about how she could have access to her favorite show. She seized the iPod and fitted the headphones in her ears.

James heard it when Rebecca mumbled "So much for quality time…." And so he seized his one and only chance to make Nat laugh so far. James leaned over to her and took each headphone out of her ears. "Remember? I thought we were having QUALITY TIME!" James shouted.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're exceedingly annoying?" Nat asked mockingly. "Yes, I get it all the time from your dad. He says it reminds me of how he and my grandfather were in their 6th year," he replied coolly. Natalie smiled and sat back in her seat.

"So," Scorpius said, speaking for the first time of the entire train ride, "Did you bring the Purple Book of Wonder?" Nat grinned and pulled it out of Scooter's cage. Speaking of Scooter…where was he? Natalie glanced around to discover that he was asleep on top of James' feet.

"Shall we see what is first on this year's 'get in trouble' agenda?" Becca asked slyly. Approving nods from the rest of the quartet followed, so Nat took the key out of her back pocket and unlocked the journal. "Okay, in the middle, everyone!" Natalie said. The group leaned inward so that they were all facing the middle of a circle. Even Scooter woke up and sat in the center of their formation.

"First on the agenda," Nat read in a loud-ish whisper, "Is to hold a movie night on the Quidditch pitch." Everyone was shocked.

"But my mother has told me a billion times that…" Rosie started, but was interrupted by James in a mocking tone of his Aunt Hermione's voice. "Muggle technology doesn't work on Hogwarts grounds!" he squealed. Everyone laughed except for Rose, who smacked him in the back of the head. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. If Rebecca can find a way how, we can definitely find a way how as a group," Scorpius said. It was usual of him to be optimistic. "But how?" Rose asked.

"Well," Nat began, "It would be against nearly every rule, but I brought my laptop, and if we hook Becca's iPod up to it with a USB cable, we could plug the laptop into a projector and project it onto a huge sheet of cloth, which we could probably get from the house elves, and then we could…." James interrupted her. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm pretty sure it's impossible!" "Nothing," she began in response, "is impossible when you're a witch."

"So how are we getting the word out about this? And what the bloody hell are we going to watch?" Rose asked. "I thought we could probably have a lame chick-flick marathon," Natalie said, "because Rebecca has plenty of those." Rebecca blushed. "Couples will come to see them, and girls will _flood in_!" Scorp added.

"Exactly, and after we find a way to make the technology work, we can hang up posters in the common rooms. The prefects will be against it, but since Scorpius is a prefect for Slytherin, Rose is a prefect for Gryffindor, and Rebecca is one for Ravenclaw, they can make sure that we don't get told off," Natalie said. "But what about Hufflepuff?" Rosie asked. "Aaron was made prefect this year, too, and he'll do anything for a couple Galleons," she replied. Applause filled the compartment. "You're a genius Nat!" James said.

She stood up and curtsied mockingly. "Thank you, thank you all," she said blandly. "Now, Rebecca, please elaborate on how you managed to get your iPod to work on school grounds," Natalie said. Rebecca tossed her ponytail and got to work drawing a messy diagram.

"There's a painting on the third floor of a horse. If you pet the horse seventeen times without touching it's tail," she was interrupted. "People will think you're insane," James declared. "No!" Becca said, "The painting will swing out kind of like with the Fat Lady's portrait for the common room and you have to go down a stairwell and then you get access to this big panel thing where you can lift the 'Muggle technology' lever and then your electronics will work. Just make sure you set it back when you're done or the caretaker will have a cow!"

"Wow. So, where can we get a projector?" Rosie said. "There's something in the restricted section about conjuring crap like that," Scorpius said, "I've read it." "Brilliant! Now we just need to make flyers and it'll all be GREAT!" Natalie exclaimed.

The quintet sat the rest of the train ride with the only sound being quills scratching against their parchment. Finally, when it was time to change into their robes, they had twenty-four messy handwritten flyers finished. They all said the same thing:

ROMANCE MOVIE MARATHON

Hosted by the Quintet

Stuck on a date idea? Need to have a night with your friends? Look no further, just meet us on the Quidditch pitch at midnight for a 5-hour event.

Admission fee: 7 Sickles

After looking over their handiwork carefully, the five friends slipped their robes over their heads and prepared to leave the train. "Oh God, another school year…" Nat said. "Hey, it won't be so bad. And we have the movie tomorrow!" Scorp said. "Yeah, I guess…" "And there' s always James to brighten up your day!" Rose said teasingly. Nat blushed and sat back in her seat, thinking about how great it was to be back with her friends again.


End file.
